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Blackhat vs Whitehat SEO

A. Rodriguez

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I've been studying SEO lately and I came across a statement by a popular SEO, he stated that it is not possible to be entirely whitehat and dominate search unless you are a brand especially in competitive niches.
So my questions are:
  1. If I'm starting a site from scratch, is it possible to rank very High in SERPS without doing some things Google dislikes like asking for backlinks or buying it?
  2. Does paying for backlinks still work?
  3. What Blackhat SEO Tactics is still working now?
 
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lewj24

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Im no SEO expert but I'm pretty sure if Google finds your site using blackhat tactics they will take your site off of their search engine entirely. Very risky business.
 

eliquid

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So I run a SaaS for SEO's.

I've also done SEO for close to 2 decades almost now.

If you start from scratch, brand or not, it's gonna take you 3 years to rank for anything worthwhile.

Note, this does not apply to "new terms" or very very long tail.

We did some big data digging at my SaaS and here is the findings and reason why I say it will take you 3 years: Domain Age For SEO Is EXTREMELY Important

If you can't wait 3 years to rank ( meaning, you need money now ), don't do SEO.

Also, if you can't get top 3 rankings... don't bother wasting your time. I don't have a article on this, but could elaborate more later on if needed.

.
 

ZF Lee

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If you can't wait 3 years to rank ( meaning, you need money now ), don't do SEO.

Also, if you can't get top 3 rankings... don't bother wasting your time. I don't have a article on this, but could elaborate more later on if needed.
A long time ago, I thought of going the way of the SEO, but because of these two things, I decided not to. Now to think of it, I never heard of famous Internet entrepreneurs (not involved in affiliate marketing or IM stuff) jawing all about SEO.
 
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Jason "GrandK"

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I've been studying SEO lately and I came across a statement by a popular SEO, he stated that it is not possible to be entirely whitehat and dominate search unless you are a brand especially in competitive niches.
So my questions are:
  1. If I'm starting a site from scratch, is it possible to rank very High in SERPS without doing some things Google dislikes like asking for backlinks or buying it?
  2. Does paying for backlinks still work?
  3. What Blackhat SEO Tactics is still working now?

I can personally vouch for ranking high in a very competitive market segment with completely white hat SEO techniques. I write killer content and do the appropriate outreach. In my experience, the best content gets to the top of Google, it just takes time.

For example, my first site took 3 years before I saw solid results. However, once I began ranking for some lower competition keywords, I noticed the more competitive stuff came along with it.

You just have to make sure you are adding value. Is your content the best out there? If not, what can you do to make it better?

You mention asking for backlinks like it is a bad thing. Although Google discourages paid backlinks, you can do campaigns, such as Brian Dean's Skyscraper technique, to get more backlinks. Also, check out Neil Patel and his strategies for getting backlinks, such as finding dead links, etc.

Finally, I never used any of these techniques. When I first started out I would comment on blogs or some other waste of time backlink strategy. I gave that up and I simply wrote the best content and used tried and true SEO methods derived from the gurus I mentioned above, such as proper internal linking and post promotion.

Blackhat stuff used to work but now Google bots can sniff it out. Not worth it, IMO.
 

eliquid

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A long time ago, I thought of going the way of the SEO, but because of these two things, I decided not to. Now to think of it, I never heard of famous Internet entrepreneurs (not involved in affiliate marketing or IM stuff) jawing all about SEO.

Exactly.

It may be different now ( because of time and the fact a lot of people claim they are SEO's now ), but back in my hey-day, I never once ran across an SEO that could claim they made a million(s) off just SEO.

It was always the PPC and email guys, which is why I did a long stint in PPC myself.

Of course as time has passed by ( I made this statement 10 years ago ), I am sure there is 1 or 2 outliers out there for SEO, but I still haven't ran across them myself.

.
 

minivanman

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My 19 sites all took about 1 year or less to reach the 1st page of Google for the best, legit search terms. I had 1 site that was not on the 1st page so I went back in, did a few changes and I noticed just the other day it is now on the 1st page. I don't do any black hat. These sites are also not in the same city for the same thing. There are like 2 or 3 in the same city. Although a few are in small towns, the others are in major metro areas. I do try to have a lot of pictures, keep the date updated and re-publish them quite often. I don't understand why some people feel the need to buck the system.
 
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VoraciousReader

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PBNs still work and always will, because links will always be the most important ranking factor imo. Only the strategy used to build them will change.....
 

hughjasle

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Of course as time has passed by ( I made this statement 10 years ago ), I am sure there is 1 or 2 outliers out there for SEO, but I still haven't ran across them myself.
I know a total of 2 guys (well to be fair one of them is a small team of 3 guys working together), who made and make their money off SEO to the tune of 7 figures a year. One has been around for 5 years the other has been around for 10+ years now working on their site. I don't know much about SEO or what techniques they use or wh vs bh. But I know a lot of people who have made or make millions online, but only these 2 who did/do it with SEO. However, in both cases, SEO was their traffic driver. The revenue they both receives come from selling their own physical goods, and both are in the health/wellness spaces.
 

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